Man-In-Space Firsts:
Creature Comforts
TABLE OF CONTENTS
First damp drawers: U.S. astronaut Alan Shepard actually wet his space suit as he sat strapped in his capsule Freedom 7 atop a Redstone rocket in 1961, waiting to become the first American in space.

First powder rooms in space: Gemini and Apollo astronauts urinated into cups which they dumped overboard. They used stick-on plastic bags for solid waste which was carried down to Earth -- messy, smelly, uncomfortable and poor hygiene.

First private toilet: The American space station Skylab had the first private stall. A funnel collected urine and air blew it into a bag. On a wall, a toilet seat with seat belt was the target for solid waste, which was bagged, dried and carted home.

First stool in orbit: Shuttle astronauts share a bowl which can't be flushed. Seat belts hold them on the can. They also have hand and toe holds to keep from floating off their unisex potty, and a porthole for a view of Earth from the throne. Solid waste is shredded by something called a slinger, then dried, disinfected, and dumped overboard.

First shower in space: Skylab offered the first shower in orbit. It leaked, causing astronauts to waste time cleaning up. Shuttles don't have showers.

First to shave in space: The Apollo 10 crew became the first to shave in space in May 1969. After electric shavers with vacumn attachments didn't work in testing, the astronauts used brushless shaving cream and standard safety razors on their flight and they worked well, even catching the loose whiskers.

First nail clippers in orbit: A shuttle astronaut uses a toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, hairbrush, razor, shaving cream and nail clippers. The clippers don't see much use since nails grow sparingly in weightlessness.

First to sleep in space: USSR cosmonaut Gherman Titov slept during part of his 25 hours in orbit in August 1961.

First gas station in space: The first refueling in orbit was from an unmanned Progress tanker to the Salyut 6 space station in 1978. Cosmonauts Georgi Grechko and Yuri Romanenko were in the station.

First rock music tape in orbit: French cosmonaut Jean-Loup Chretien, at the Mir space station in November 1988, mellowed out with a music tape by the British rock group Pink Floyd.
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First floral delivery to space: A blooming orchid grown on Earth from seeds planted in space was carried to Mir station in 1988 by cosmonauts Anatoly Solovov, Viktor Savinkyh, Alexander Alexandrov.

Most uncomfortable space trip: The Soviets crammed extra seats in their one-man Vostok capsule and called it Voskhod. In October 1964, they stuffed cosmonauts Konstantin Feoktistov, Vladimir Komarov and Boris Yegorov into Voskhod 1 and sent them to space for 24 hours. They were so cramped they couldn't even take along spacesuits for safety.

First nicotine fit in space: Japan's cosmoreporter Toyohiro Akiyama kicked a four-pack-a-day habit for his flight to the Mir space station in December 1990, where he admitted looking forward desperately to his first cigarette after landing.

Most bone-chilling: Salyut 7 broke down while unoccupied in 1985. Vladimir Dzhanibekov and Viktor Savinykh flew to the station in June, finding it frozen from power loss. It took 10 days to warm up the living quarters so they could move in.

First to fly in a Russian winter: The first USSR manned launch during a rigorous Soviet winter sent cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov to space for 71 hours in January 1969.

First to fly in a Florida winter: John Glenn rode his Mercury capsule Friendship 7 from the balmy eastern shore of the Sunshine State to orbit in February 1962.

Most tragic winter launch: Seven Challenger astronauts were killed during lift-off from Cape Canaveral in January 1986.

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